Classroom Lessons via Zoom

[jjx111]

AIBU to expect the teachers at my daughter’s rs primary school to offer at least some lessons via Zoom? The feedback I have been given is that that they aren’t offering it due to a) safeguarding issues, and b) it would add to the teachers workload. Well, surely if we parents consent for our child to sign in for these lessons then no safeguarding issue. Plus, at present, we parents are doing at least 60% of the teachers work for them via homeschooling. (I appreciate that they are setting work for the children, but this is part of the planning they would do anyway).

The majority of children live in a household without a single laptop, tablet or basic smartphone? I have an Android that was cheap when I got it four years ago. It still runs zoom and teams. But in any event, you say zoom and teams isn't the answer. What is your solution for teaching new material to pupils at home? Do they pay better attention to a video?

Ok, its impossible to teach the children at home. Let's get them back into school because we're going to need then to be educated over the next year.

Or we can as a society negotiate with telecoms companies, SLT can stagger lessons so different year groups are at different times (allowing children to share a device) and try to educate as many children as possible as much as possible whilst staying home.

My expectation is we won't be fully normal until the second half of next year: so what should be done until then?

@penguinsbegin school as we know it won’t be back for a while!
even IF there is a vaccine by september, it will take a looooooong time to manufacture and distribute enough doses to cover the population. until then, school as we know it won’t happen.
most schools don’t have space to accomodate everybody in groups of 15.
So what is going to happen? schools magically expanding? the virus magically disappearing?
or should we maybe make online education accessible?
my son uses a 10 year old ipad to access zoom (retail value a grand total of £15).

If teaching kids at home is impossible why do people homeschool then?
Before the virus the numbers have been rising.

They probably don’t work full time jobs as well as home school their kids though.

Zoom or anything similar wouldn't work for children like mine. His special school are doing something like this for the more able ones but we were told for his class it would be pointless. He is now back in school but there are many similar children that are not.

@underhisi i don’t think there will ever be a one size fits all approach (there isn’t one for face to face teaching either)

I completely understand and accept all the reasons. Why are some schools doing it then? If the Unions are advising against it and there are safeguarding issues? What makes them above safeguarding issues?

@penguinsbegin it became clear after 6 weeks in primary that if I wanted my son to have an Education(As in any education - our local primaries are proper sink schools), I would have to pay for private. So we did. Consequently he’s getting an education currently, including loads of new things. Done via zoom, absolutely safely (you can make zoom safe, you just need to know what you are doing - zoom has changed quite a bit from the zoom 2 months ago). Teams is there as well, but has other issues.
For you g children, there are 2 options : live or recorded lessons. Everything else means delegating to the parents, which working parents can do.

@penguinsbegin not for year 2, and my son has SENDs. Year 1 i hear is doing fine as well, reception needs some help (logging in and out)

penguinsbegan. I have retired early from teachimg. I taught secondary for 26 years and was Head of Department for 17 of those years. I also examined A Level gor major exam board for 21 years. I do have a 13 year old child.

I stated my child had received worksheets he had been given and got correct the previous year.

Nothing wrong with using differentiated worksheets for Year 11 one year, and then as specification had not changed, using same worksheets for new Year 11, the following year. You clearly did not grasp it means the same work sheets but given to a different cohort of children. This is completely different to giving a child the same worksheet two years in a row on four separate occasions because Maths teacher can't be bothered to make a new one.

I do accept it must be much much harder for practcal subjects. I can only state for non practical subjects at Secondary, a teacher setting wfh would be saving a lot of time, compared to that spent face to face in the classroom.

My Y1 and Y3 children would give up/wander off/break the device if taught live online. The Y3 can probably watch a recorded lesson but would then be off watching game play on YouTube if not supervised.

I teach an international school abroad.

We are using a mix of Zoom, pre-recorded videos and work set for primary and full Zoom usual timetable for secondary. Most parents seem to be happy with this. Other international schools nearby seem to be doing similar.

I have 3 children of my own of different ages at our school and all in all, it's going pretty well. We're all coping, kids are busy and learning. Some issues with internet and with hearing each other when we have Zoom at the same time, but generally, it's OK.

However...

1. At the start of the lockdown, our SLT spent the whole weekend designing a training and communications package. Then the first week we phased in the Zoom lessons etc. whilst training on how to use Zoom, security measures, video editing etc.

1. We have no unions or LAs, so the school decided that Zoom was an acceptable tool for us.

1. All our teachers and TAs have a school device to work from. All our secondary students have a device already and we made it clear that all primary students need a device and internet. State schools couldn't do this.

1. We don't have keyworker children in school to look after, nor do we need to deliver food etc. to families.

So, it works for us. Many of our teachers are parents - some single parents of small children. They are expected to do the Zoom lessons (3-4 per day for primary, all day for secondary) and all are, without complaint as far as I know. I assume it is tough for many though.

This issue is one of childcare in the UK. The government decided that what schools should be doing and told schools not to focus on learning. So, schools are doing just that and telling teachers to do just that. So it's really the government who people should be annoyed with, not the teachers.

Overseas your set-up sounds the same as at my SILs international school in Germany. She’s been teaching her usual timetable via zoom and using it to discuss work and mark it with individual students too. Now that school has gone back lessons are still on zoom as well for the students who are not coming in.

Yes I suspect we will be asked to broadcast our lessons via Zoom for some of the children to stay at home for social distancing purposes. I really don't think that will be very useful for primary children, especially the younger years. And that means teachers won't be able to set meaningful online work, so I'm certain many parents will be upset by that.

Anyone answered the question I've posed several times on these threads, which is: have your employers confirmed that they will back you in the event of any legal action following use of Zoom? Dh has been told he is personally liable.

My dd is being taught by Zoom. She came home on fri 13th March and lessons started Monday 16th. there has been no change to her usual timetable, classes include children from all over the world.
No problems encountered yet, they even have registration twice a day and sign in on a Sunday night. This is weird as the head of house lives in Italy, not sure of the benefit of this one
Skype is used for 1 to 1 music lessons, and auditions for college will be via Skype too, I imagine.

Angelina, if your institution asked you to use a particular platform as part of your provision then they would normally be liable whether they specifically say so or not, and if they said that to your DH he would be reasonable to say that in that case he cannot use the platform in question. The more formal organisations we have used zoom for have set out terms of use to cover their backs. I imagine schools do that too, perhaps someone who is using it in school can confirm.